Chapter 377

Cassia woke with the first tentative light of dawn streaming into the room. She was on her side, facing Calix. Just a hair’s breadth away from touching, they were so close that if she sucked in a deep breath, her breasts would touch his chest. She looked at his face, which looked so much younger and vulnerable in repose. None of the phenomenally successful businessmen were in evidence, and it reminded her so much of the young man she’d known that a lump formed in her throat. A completely unbidden, monumental wave of tenderness and something else washed over her, and she went stiff with instant panic. No, she couldn’t—wouldn’t—allow it to rise. She knew if she did that, she would be admitting something that would have the potential to devastate her life even beyond what she already knew to be possible.

She reasoned with herself that it was completely understandable that all these feelings would be emerging. How many people got to realize their dreams and long-held fantasies? And what a